Katyusha
Katyusha (Катюша, Kachūsha), also known as "Drifting Snow" Katyusha, is one of the supporting characters of ''Girls und Panzer''. Profile Katyusha is a student from Pravda Girls High School and the overall commander of the school's Sensha-Dō team, she operates a Soviet T-34/85. Appearance Katyusha is a girl with short blonde hair and a pair of light blue eyes. She also wears a green brown style uniform with a Russian red cross followed by a skirt of the same distinctive colour, or as in the match against Ooarai, a jumpsuit modeled after the WW2 Russian tank operators. Katyusha is also shown to wear a Russian tanker's padded cap when she prepares for battle, which looks gratuitously large on someone as small as her. She has a very diminutive stature, making her age hard to determine; however, she is 17 years old. Personality Katyusha is well known for her arrogant and childlike personality; most likely due to her small height, she feels she has to 'stand above' anyone else, friend or foe alike (which she accomplishes by sitting on Nonna's shoulders). While her arrogance is backed up by her tactical skill, it sometimes gets the better of her (as her request for a surrender arguably gave time for Ooarai to assess the situation and execute a breakthrough, squandering her advantage); she also does not hide her emotions well, openly venting her anger when things don't go her way, and crying right after her defeat by Ooarai Girls Academy (and denying it out of embarrassment when Nonna gave her a towel to wipe her tears). Concerning her personal relationships, Katyusha seems very close to Nonna, in whose company she is almost always found and Katyusha has a habit of calling Miho Nishizumi "Pirozhki". Despite her childish personality she is shown to quite intelligent and manipulative as she managed to manipulate the 1st years to mount them against their senpais and the 3rd years to prevent them to punish her for daring beat them (with a little help from Nonna). She is also surprisingly strong and aggressive in physical combat being able to beat up three girls all larger than her, although not without being beaten really badly in return. Background Katyusha led the Pravda Sensha-Dō team against Ooarai Girls Academy during the semi-final round of the Sensha-Dō Competition (and it's implied she was in command last year, when Miho Nishizumi's actions gained her school a victory); her strategy of luring the Ooarai tanks to an ambush almost worked out and Ooarai's tanks were forced to hide into a dilapidated church to escape the onslaught. After that, Katyusha offered them surrender conditions, among which the condition that they would have to bow in submission to her; however, after learning that losing the match would cause Ooarai's closure, Miho refused and decided to fight till the end. While recuperating, Miho sent some scouts (Mako Reizei, Midoriko Sono, Erwin and Yukari Akiyama) to locate the position of all of Pravda's tanks and they resumed the match. Katyusha expected that the whole Ooarai team would chase their flag tank or possibly strike at the weak point she deliberately left in her line, but Ooarai's tanks attacked their vanguard, taking her by surprise. She then instructed Nonna to take out Ooarai's flag tank, while Ooarai's Anglerfish Team and Hippo Team pushed into the town in order to corner Pravda's flag tank. The two flag tanks from both sides were eventually hit at the same moment, but miraculously Ooarai's flag tank (Duck Team) survived, leading to Pravda's defeat. After this, Katyusha revealed a surprising grace in defeat, openly acknowledging Miho's prowess and shaking her hand while standing on her own feet for once. Together with Nonna, Katyusha later appeared as a spectator in the finals and cheered for Ooarai. Quotes *(Der Film) "Double envelopments, of course! Then we wait for General Winter to ally with us! Annihilation matches have no time limit anyway!" *(Der Film) "Operation Beef Stroganoff" is the best! Can't beat the combination of onions, beef and sour cream!" Trivia *Her name means "Little Kate" in English. *Her favorite flower is Chamomile and her favorite tank is the Soviet KV-2. *Her name comes from the Katyusha a multiple rocket launcher fielded by the Soviet Union during WWII, which was the truck on which Katyusha and Nonna arrived to greet the Ooarai team before the battle. In turn, the rocket launcher was named after the famous traditional song "Katyusha", which is the song they were singing with the rest of Pravda's team at the beginning of the semi-final round. *It is possible that she already knew that Kuromorimine had a Maus tank since when the Maus appeared in the subbed version, she responded with "Their Maus is here.", implying that Pravda had faced the Maus at least once, most likely during the previous National Tournament; however the fact that Miho Nishizumi does not seem to know about the Maus contradicts this idea since Miho was still the Vice Commander. *Ironically, the name 'Katyusha' is a diminutive variant of the name 'Yekaterina', further adding to her childish nature. *Katyusha is the shortest character appeared so far in the show. *Part of her daily routine is trying to get taller. *Her Favourite Food is Beef Stroganoff. *Katyusha's birthday is January 31st, the same date in 1943 as the surrender of General Paulus and the 6th Army to the Soviets during the Battle of Stalingrad. *Nakajima of Leopon Team nick-named her "Kat-chan". Curious that Ooarai girls seems have habit to shorten someone's name. *Even though she is both the overall commander of Pravda's Sensha-dō team and the Student President, she doesn't know many things about the school. *In an anime episode from Genshiken, two extras characters can be seen cosplaying as Katyusha and Nonna and their piggyback ride. *Her dreams of getting taller is shown in the video game Girls und Panzer: Dream Tank Match at the end of Pravda's Domination Match. Gallery es:Katyusha Category:Characters Category:Anime Characters Category:Females Category:Mononymous Category:Overall Commanders Category:Tank Commanders Category:Pravda Girls' High School Category:TemporaryCategory Category:Katyusha Guard